The Unn League Is Philly's Hottt New Gay Club | Philalphia magaze

Contents:

• PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS
• ‘PHILALPHIA FREEDOM’ ISN’T JT A GAY ANTHEM. IT’S A PRI ANTHEM.
• THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD
• 1920S AND 30S: GAY BARS SURFACE
• THE UNN LEAGUE IS PHILLY’S HOTTT NEW GAY CLUB
• KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY
• NEW MEDIA VENTURE FOR PHILALPHIA'S GAY AND LBIAN COMMUNY
• PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS - MAGAZE ADVERTISG COSTS
• GAYBORHOOD

PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS

”The ocsn was the official after-party for my five-year llege rnn, which was held at one of the most popular dance parti the Gayborhood.

‘PHILALPHIA FREEDOM’ ISN’T JT A GAY ANTHEM. IT’S A PRI ANTHEM.

“There go the neighborhood, ” I thought as the last illn I had of this part of the cy as an clive yet uniquely gay space dissolved before my the past few years, the “ath of the Gayborhood” — a phrase once uttered mock horror whenever a favore hangout changed hands or a well-known stutn screwed up — has taken on an air of evabily. Two popular Gayborhood bars, Venture Inn and ICandy, have closed down, and Voyr and Woody’s have tried to broan their ctomer base by hostg bachelorette parti, exotic male revue shows for women, and even NFL watch parti. Franny Price, the veteran producer of Philly Pri — one of the untry’s largt annual gay celebratns — is steppg down after more than 25 years, wh no succsor sight.

We saw this the polil arena 2018, when two openly gay black ndidat, Mallm Kenyatta and Alex Deerg, peted for a state Hoe seat the 181st District — a sectn of North Philalphia that’s both geographilly and enomilly distant om the Gayborhood. (Kenyatta would go on to w, jog Gayborhood-area Reprentative Brian Sims as the state’s only two openly gay legislators.

THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD

Cywi, LGBTQ visibily is siarly creasg the cultural realm: Large-sle LGBTQ-themed events have moved beyond the tradnal Pri weekend June and Outft October, and many former Gayborhood event producers and performers are bookg venu throughout the cy. For many Philalphians, the Gayborhood is no longer the sole place for an LGBTQ experience, but jt another optn a growg field of clive this 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall rts New York, which brought the gay rights movement the U. To mastream attentn, members of Philly’s LGBTQ muny are reflectg — some wistfully, some crilly — on what the Gayborhood means today, and wonrg whether there’s really anythg left to be lost by venturg outsi the neighborhood’s now-fadg rabow-pated crosswalks.

1920S AND 30S: GAY BARS SURFACE

•In the 1950s, Center Cy the vicy of 13th and Loct streets, which we now ll the Gayborhood, was known as the Loct Strip — a red-light district full of strip and htler bars, some of which tered to a gay clientele. The Strip also had another, more disparagg name — the “gay ghetto” — but at a time when people who equented gay-oriented bs faced public scty and harassment, was a lifele. “Even before Stonewall, ” says Franny Price, who has lived the cy for 62 years, “the gay ghetto was an area where we LGBT people had a sense of belongg.

THE UNN LEAGUE IS PHILLY’S HOTTT NEW GAY CLUB

”“When the gay bars and shops were lumped wh the ‘unsirable’ elements of the ’60s and ’70s and threatened wh police raids, the attacks had the effect of galvanizg the muny, ” says Bob Skiba, a Gayborhood historian and curator. ”In the wake of extensive civil rights work by LGBTQ activists around the untry the 1970s and durg the AIDS epimic the 1980s, the openly gay character of the neighborhood was firmly entrenched by the time Cy Paper edor and lumnist David Warner scribed an Outft celebratn as “a betiful day the gayborhood” the early 1990s.

KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’

By 1999, the term Warner had ed was appearg on maps, and veloper tert soon stoked a rapid revalizatn that would turn the area om a llectn of bars and niche bs to a hot spot filled wh high-end rtrants and stutns played their own large rol the Gayborhood’s growth. In 2003, the Greater Philalphia Tourism Marketg Corporatn, now known as Vis Philalphia, lnched a hugely succsful mpaign vg potential visors to “Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay.

Dpe this official gay-forward posture, market forc were already startg to weaken the Gayborhood’s inty. But a more recent veloper appellatn, Midtown Village, now threatens to subsume the Gayborhood entirely.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

“It first began appearg on tourist maps as ‘Midtown Village Philalphia’s Gayborhood, ’” says Skiba.

“Next, maps showed two separate areas — Midtown Village to the north and the Gayborhood to the south. This year, I’ve seen maps showg only Midtown Village, wh text mentng ‘the Gayborhood, a part of Midtown Village.

And while some observers would suggt that the change is a natural nsequence of wispread LGBTQ acceptance, others argue ’s a paful sign of gentrifitn that’s erasg the inty, culture, and tersectn of racial and genr diversy wh the Gayborhood.

NEW MEDIA VENTURE FOR PHILALPHIA'S GAY AND LBIAN COMMUNY

“As more straight-intified folks and bs move wh the Gayborhood, LGBTQ inty of that space be diluted.

”“The Gayborhood has changed along wh all of Center Cy, ” unters Valerie Saan, who wh her partner, Marcie Turney, owns Barbuzzo, Bud & Marilyn’s, and several other popular rtrants and retail shops the neighborhood.

PHILALPHIA GAY NEWS - MAGAZE ADVERTISG COSTS

”While many the Gayborhood bemoan s cle due to straight rints gentrifyg the area, Turney has a different outlook.

GAYBORHOOD

The Gayborhood stopped beg a neighborhood which the most margalized uld fd and be themselv and started to feel more like a tourist attractn for cultural this time, two natnal movements — Black Liv Matter, spearhead by queer black women, and the fight for marriage equaly, upheld by the Supreme Court 2015 — awakened my social nscns.

By then, I was a young journalist verg the muny, and I began to notice ownership and learship dispari at Gayborhood spac, which were led predomantly by cisgenr whe men spe the notable role that people of lor across the genr spectm played shapg the area’s had, of urse, seen this before I did. Longtime muny activist Michael Hson, the cy’s LGBT liaison unr Mayor Street, had advoted for more clive polici wh the cy’s LGBTQ muny as the Gayborhood grew mercial promence. While some iativ, such as creased fundg for LGBTQ nonprofs, improved due to the Gayborhood’s newfound viabily, he says there were untend nsequenc that began to overshadow the progrs.